renovating this beauty back to its glory

“Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.”-Camille Pissaro

We have picked up this 1923 bungalow, that needs a ton of TLC. I hope to document our "before and afters" our expenses and what we learn along the way. We welcome all tips and design suggestions. Please feel free to add your comments.

Category Archives for Basement

Okay here goes: we have not had a working kitchen for quite some time. We used to have a kitchen sink so we were able to kind of make due, but the sink has been gone now for what feels like forever.

This issue is compounded because one weeks ago a plumber came out and said he could NOT fix the sink in the upstairs bathroom. He said maybe (maybe!! -wtf?)…. maybe he could fix it if he broke through the ceiling in the dining room, and he even added, “I may have to take out some of the wall.”

This was too much for me. Plumber-man was scheduled to come out the next day to do the nasty; to destroy the one part of the house that isn’t broken, but I got cold feet. I called him off. I have not heard from him since. Therefore, the sink upstairs doesn’t work either.

So where’s the ugly?……right below. As it really is with a bucket of dirty dishes to the left waiting to be cleaned by the maid. (we don’t have a maid)

that’s my dog Batman sleeping under the stairs

Let me clarify: it’s an awesome sink, but we have not cleaned it up just yet. The entire basement has remained in “AS-IS” condition since the day we moved in. Which is funny because I wanted it fixed-up first, so we could find places for things and only have to move them once. Oh well.

Now that’s pretty messy, but wait, wait, there’s more. To the side opposite of where Batman is napping, is our temporary kitchen. Including a banana peel and cantaloupe skin awaiting the compost pile. I have absolutely no system for compost. This will have to be solved rather soon.

I didn’t clean or move a thing for this photo. You can see I also brushed my teeth in this sink. Plus we have a spray bottle of ammonia and water, next to a squeeze bottle of agave, cardboard recycling, and cooked rice from last night’s dinner. Yummy.

So maybe you have been here-done this, or maybe you are like me and you are plugging along and getting by. Tell me about it. Share pics if you want….I can’t be the only one.

My Advice: Don’t pretend it’s okay, because then your motivation slips, at least it did for me. I say tolerate but do not “like” and keep on moving forward.

****News Flash: Low and behold I may see a flicker of light at the end of the tunnel. I have been informed, it is quite possible, likely probable, that we will install a sink tonight. Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The basement is scary. I have seen worse, but this is pretty raw I’d say.

The goal here is to take everything out, and basically paint it white, and design a dog room, and a workout area, and a gaming area/movie watching area. I have developed a bad habit of not taking before photos. I did it again today.

Here is the demo, the maybe dog room.

I needed a saw for these shelves. So I’ll have to tackle this later – maybe tomorrow.

I thought the wood behind the cabinets was kind of pretty. Only one wall is like this so we’ll see.

Like this:

I have the keys, but they still have not transferred the title. I could do their jobs with my eyes closed. I think the real estate industry as we know is going to a painful death, once it gets completely automated. It’s already starting for the foreclosure homes, because the volume is so high, transactions are being done on line.

But enough of that, now that I have the keys I am looking at time management. As my first project. With all my excitement, I forgot about how much time everything takes.

To get you up to speed, not only do the floors have to be refinished before move in but I have to unload a 10 x 20 storage unit, and a another garage full of our belonging from the last house. Most my old stuff is way too big for the new house. Plus finding exactly what you need, or want to keep, might take a half hour or more. Oh man, I wasn’t thinking about this part.

Take a breath.

Tomorrow I meet the water department at the house because this house was winterized. The grossest thing is someone pooped in a none working toilet. It’s so gross , that sentence was hard for me to type.

I will be heading over with cleaning supplies, and tools, so I can remove staples from the wood floor while I wait for water. But then it will be my tasks to clean that toilet. Renovation is so glamorous.

Update to today: The title transferred, now I can put some flowers on the front porch….lol. But in reality, I am learning about fixing a water line. The water man showed up bright and early…..and turned on the water only to find we have a leak. They say this is common when a house is winterized, because the people doing the weatherization don’t really get all the water out. Then it freezes and bursts the pipes anyway. Which is exactly what they are trying to avoid.

So I have already been to Lowes, second day in a row…the will reconize me by the end of the week for sure. And this is what I bought.

This is called the “fat boy” blow torch. I really wanted a thinner canister, but this came with the instant on switch. I didn’t want to mess with lighting the flame with a match. In any case this was my first time using a blow torch and I did pretty good. I soldered three of the four junctions without a problem, the forth one my husband fixed for me.

The Water Department guy taught me how to read the meter, and told me how to recognized any leaks in the line. There is a small football shaped thing on the dial, if it is spinning at all, there is water running or a leak somewhere in the lines. After the weld. No movement. Success.

Except the fact that the some of the pipes are not longer connect to anything…..like to the sink in the upstairs bathroom or the outside spigot in the back yard.

Oh! One thing I forgot to mention in my haste to get all this progress up on my site: when buying tools, buy big!!! Here is the first blow torch “kit” I bought: This little boy could not reach the needed temperature for the job. My husband found some good news inside the directions, it said it was perfect for making crème brûlée. So I’ll will be looking forward to that tasty treat, some day in the distant future. Cheers!